Rice thickens the Trump spy plot

She conceded that that could have resulted in Trump officials' communications being picked up and read by USA intelligence. Citing anonymous "U.S. officials familiar with the matter", Lake reported Monday that the former national security adviser "requested the identities of USA persons in raw intelligence reports on dozens of occasions that connect to the Donald Trump transition and campaign".

However, it is not clear if Rice wanted to know the names under instruction to do so or if she acted on her own.

'Masking and unmasking in this context are the set of rules governing how agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation or NSA will treat the information of a US citizen if they come across said citizen in the course of surveilling a foreign adversary, and only a foreign adversary. "There is no connection between unmasking and leaking".

If only to recap what the public has learned over the past month, a consensus of sorts has emerged that during the final months of the Obama administration, Trump and/or his associates were caught up in "incidental collection" tied to surveillance of foreign nationals. He brought that information to the NSC's legal counsel - who told Cohen-Watnick to suspend his review.

"From her perspective she didn't know what specific unmasking Devin Nunes and others are talking about, in part because that is something she asks - or asked during the regular course of her work as national security adviser", he said.

She said she was "surprised" and "shocked" by Trump's March tweet that the Trump Tower was "wiretapped" by the Obama Administration, saying the claim was untrue and that making it was "not typical of the way presidents treat their predecessors".

"Not only did it not occur, it didn't occur and it could not occur as directed by the White House", Rice said.

Cotton, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, added that he's "never asked for an unmasked name".

Rice, in an interview with MSNBC, acknowledged that she sometimes asked for the names of Americans referenced in reports. At most, she could request that the identities be unmasked, and NSA could either approve or deny the request. The fact is if, whether we're talking about Russian Federation or any other topic, if I saw an intelligence report that looked potentially significant, and understand by definition, if it is being provided to me, it is significant.

This is typically done because the official needs the name to understand the full context of the report. So they're giving it to me, if I read it, and I think that in order for me to really understand is it significant or not so significant, I need to understand who the US person is, I can make that request.

The Obama administration's last-second changes also make it very likely somebody would leak, "so Team Obama's "spread the info" initiative certainly broke the spirit of the laws", the Post said.

She maintained, however, that asking for more information about names included in intelligence reports was a routine and necessary aspect of her job in protecting American security.

McCAIN: "I think the circumstances indicate that there's a possibility that that request could have been politically motivated".

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